Editing International broadcasting (section)

=== Expansion ===
Other notable early international broadcasters included [[Vatican Radio]] (February 12, 1931), [[Voice of Russia|Radio Moscow]], the official service of the Soviet Union (renamed the [[Voice of Russia]], following the collapse of the Soviet Union). Clarence W. Jones started transmitting on Christmas Day, 1931 from Christian missionary radio station [[HCJB]] in [[Quito]], [[Ecuador]]. Broadcasting in South Asia was launched in 1925 in [[Ceylon]] – [[Radio Ceylon]], now the [[Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation]] is the oldest in the region.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-17049, Joseph Goebbels spricht.jpg|thumb|left|213x213px|[[Joseph Goebbels]] headed [[Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda]] in [[Nazi Germany]]. International broadcasting was an important element in [[Nazi propaganda]].]]
Shortwave broadcasting from [[Nauen]] in Germany to the US, Central and South America, and the Far East began in 1926. A second station, [[Zeesen short-wave transmitter (1931)|Zeesen]], was added in 1931.<ref>Wood 2000: 49</ref> In January 1932, the German [[Reichspost]] assumed control of the Nauen station and added to its shortwave and longwave capacity.<ref>Wood 2000:57</ref> Once [[Adolf Hitler]] assumed power in 1933, shortwave, under the ''Auslandsrundfunk'' (Foreign Radio Section), was regarded as a vital element of [[Nazi propaganda]].

German shortwave hours were increased from two hours a day to 18 per day, and eventually twelve languages were broadcast on a 24-hour basis, including English. A 100 [[kilowatt]] transmitter and antenna complex was built at [[Zeesen]], near Berlin. Specialty target programming to the United States began in 1933, to South Africa, South America, and East Asia in 1934, and South Asia and Central America in 1938. German propaganda was organized under [[Joseph Goebbels]], and played a key role in the [[German annexation of Austria]] and the [[Munich Crisis]] of 1938.

In 1936, the [[International Telecommunication Union|International Radio Union]] recognized Vatican Radio as a "special case" and authorized its broadcasting without any geographical limits. On December 25, 1937, a Telefunken 25-kW transmitter and two directional antennas were added. Vatican Radio broadcast over 10 frequencies.<ref name="Levillain 2002: 1600">Levillain 2002: 1600</ref>

During the [[Spanish Civil War]], the Nationalist forces received a powerful [[Telefunken]] transmitter as a gift of Nazi Germany to aid their propaganda efforts, and until 1943 [[Radio Nacional de España]] collaborated with the Axis powers to retransmit in Spanish news from the official radio stations of Germany and Italy.